~ I was born in a world that showed me no remorse,

Had to find my path, had to find my course. ~

***

The year of 1993 had been very eventful to say the least.

Not only had Sirius Black escaped Azkaban and stayed on the run from the Ministry, he had also turned up at Hogwarts to get rid of Peter Pettigrew who was still in his Animagus form and portraying to be Ron's pet rat Scabbers.

He had briefly reconciled with his best friend Moony who was the Defence Professor at Hogwarts but all had been ruined with Snape alerting the Ministry.

In the end, Harry and Hermione had used the time turner to save both Sirius and Buckbeak and right then he had landed in Grimmauld's Place with the Hippogriff, both of them refugees and having no other place to go to.

Sirius looked around at the dark premises in disappointment. If there was one place he had vowed never to step foot in, that was his parents' home.

That very place reminded him of all the scorn and injustice he had suffered at their hands and his mother's portrait in the hall had started shrieking the second she had laid eyes on him.

For Sirius, Grimmauld Place was no different than Azkaban but if he had to elude capture, he had to stay there.

He had no idea how long he would have to spend cooped up in that tortuous house but he knew there was no other way left. The only highlight he had was that Remus would soon come to stay with him.

Then he couldn't stop himself from thinking about his cousin either. That night when he had shown up at Magnolia Crescent in the storm, he had briefly encountered Harry as well who had then taken the Knight Bus while Sirius had gone to his uncle's house.

He had seen her after so long and he had badly wanted to tell her that it was him because deep down a part of him was convinced that she would still believe him. He didn't know much about what had happened to his friends after he had been imprisoned but that night he found out about some fragments of the past through Felicity who was still unaware that the black dog she had let in her house had been none other than Sirius.

He wanted Remus to come there as soon as possible so that he could ask him to tell Fel the truth. Remus didn't know the complete truth either but at least he knew now that Sirius had not been the traitor.

Fel had no idea.

He could only imagine how torn she would have been that night when James and Lily were murdered and later her own cousin was accused of playing a key role in their deaths. He knew very well that it would have caused a lot of pain to her.

And the fact that back then she hadn't fully healed from losing Marlene either made everything twice worse.

He couldn't wait for the day he would get to see her again and tell her everything. He couldn't wait to reconcile with her and Remus.

But the tragedy was that he had no idea how long he would have to wait. And each second of waiting in that dreadful Grimmauld Place felt no less than torture.

The next year had been slightly less eventful and Sirius had gotten rather perturbed staying in the lonely mansion. Remus kept him company but neither of them had any contact with the outside world just in order to ensure that Sirius stayed hidden.

Hence Sirius's wish of Remus telling Fel everything had to wait as well.

Things got slightly worse when at the end of the year it was revealed by none other than Harry that Lord Voldemort had returned. It had been in the last task of the Triwizard Tournament that the Dark Wizard had made his appearance and also murdered Cedric Diggory.

But with the Dark Lord's return darkness spread all over as the Ministry was unwilling to accept the truth and the Death Eaters took advantage of the fact. In order to create a resistance against them, Dumbledore decided to reform the Order of the Phoenix and that was when Sirius's lonely days at Grimmauld Place finally came to an end.

True, he still couldn't go out freely but with his family home turned into the Headquarters for the Order, he had a lot more company than usual.

***

It was as normal a day as any other. Or rather as close to normal as it could get in the Wizarding World with rumors flying around of Voldemort's return. Felicity was returning home from her trip to the groceries and as such she was laid down by the grocery bags.

If there was one thing she absolutely despised about herself, it was her height. Whenever holding anything in great quantity like books or shopping bags, she more often than ever would not be able to see ahead of her.

Therefore, chances of her bumping along the way had always been a big possibility. And as she lived on a Muggle street, she couldn't even use magic outside to levitate her stuff.

Just like she had known, on the way she bumped yet again into someone, sending her bags all scattered on the ground. "Crap," she mumbled as she bent down to pick up her stuff.

"I... I'm really sorry, I wasn't looking... Sorry," the boy she had bumped into began picking up the scattered vegetables in order to help her and when he handed her the grocery bag, she received a shock.

"James...?" The name escaped her lips in a hushed whisper.

The boy in front of her was a striking image of James Potter, minus the eye color and the facial structure. His eyes were forest green and his face slightly rounder than that of James. Just like Lily.

He too was a bit stunned at her response but she recovered from the shock almost immediately, "oh... So you must be Harry Potter."

"Er... yeah."

A sad smile spread on her face as she extended her hand for him to shake, "I'm Felicity Latvia. Though when I set out for the grocery shopping today, I did not know I would meet you."

"Let me help you with these," he spoke and took half of her shopping bags.

"Thank you."

He followed her as she continued walking down the streets and at that time he couldn't help but notice that the lady he had just met knew something about his parents. Maybe that was why she had grown silent all of a sudden and her eyes would fill up with water every now and then.

"Are you okay, Miss Latvia?" he asked.

"Yeah absolutely. I just... I think I would have to get my eyesight checked... It's really... being a nuisance right now."

"Would you mind if I asked you a question?" He paused after to assess her reaction.

"Oh no, I don't mind."

"How did you know that I'm Harry Potter?"

"It's a pretty easy one," she replied, "everyone in the Wizarding World knows you. So do I."

"And you live on a Muggle street?"

"Yeah, my family home is here so I guess I have to..."

"And did you, by any chance, know my parents as well? Except what everyone has heard of them stuff?"

She stopped as if a bit shaken, "well... Harry, why don't we go to my place first? I don't think we should be having this conversation here."

He nodded, "okay."

At last they reached Felicity's house. Harry saw it was simple and well kept just like the Dursley's place and when she unlocked the door, he could feel the same organized atmosphere.

She asked him to place the bags on the table and told him to make himself feel at home while she would just come back with some drinks.

He looked around and his eyes were caught by a photo frame hanging in the corner. She was still busy with the orange juice so he walked over to the frame, examining it closely.

The photograph was probably taken at a school event, which seemed like a Graduation Ceremony. The first thing that caught his eye in the picture was the smiling faces of his parents. Both James and Lily were in that picture and right beside James was Felicity arguing with Sirius.

It seemed like this picture was one of those snapped at the wrong moment when not everyone was ready for the photo. But still it told a whole story and that was what captivated Harry the most.

He could see another frame placed in a corner at the table behind a pile of books. The edges of the frame were cracked and as compared to the other frames it looked rather broken. He was about to pick it up but stopped hearing a voice behind him.

"Ah I see, you found my photo frames."

He turned around to see her standing with a tray of two glasses of orange juice, which she placed down on the table.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snoop around."

She smiled as she waved off his worries, "that's okay. I have a lot of other pictures too which you will surely like to see."

There was a while of awkward silence as they sat on the couch. Felicity was gauging what to tell him and what not to, while Harry was waiting for her to speak.

"I knew your parents," she finally spoke, "we studied together at Hogwarts in the same batch. And that photograph you saw was taken at our graduation after seventh year."

"So... You were friends with them?"

"More so with James than the rest of them... Me and Lily got along well with each other though, I was on good terms with Remus but both your father and Sirius Black annoyed the living hell out of me."

A soft smile had taken over her features as she recalled the good old days.

Harry was thinking that all that time he had been living at Privet Drive, he hadn't had an inkling that one of his father's school friends lived in the neighborhood.

She went over to that table and brought out the broken frame handing it to him. It held a photograph of James holding a newly born Harry in his arms, grinning wide from the happiness of becoming a father.

"James had always been the brother I had never had," she mumbled as a stray tear went down her cheek and she quickly wiped it away, "I found this frame when I went over to your house the day after... After Voldemort murdered them."

***